Across the dead earth - Club game today

Across the dead earth - Club game today

Today I finally got to run and play a game of across the dead earth.

A post apocalyptic skirmish setting based in the UK.

I needed to replace a game someone else needed to move to another week at short notice and thought this would be a great stand in game.

We had four players although I prepared 8 gangs at 470pts each just encase we needed to accommodate more.

I replaced the standard turn/initiative sequence with basically the random turn method from Bolt Action. Stealing the idea from another club member I had got hold of plenty of blank dice and made my own for use in bolt action or other games.

This worked really well as it added an extra layer of tactics as you didn't know when you would get to  act. One dice per figure was used.

This also meant those two gangs with more figures were more likely to act and consequently the smaller elite gangs needed to think carefully before acting.

I think everyone enjoyed it.

Comments included:

like infinity but with out the complexity

Simple game but seems to be missing some things

This was in relation to no morale rules, and perhaps a lack of modifiers.

One thing I agreed with was that maybe the AIM action should give a bonus of 2 rather than 1, as it usually felt better to shoot twice than once at 1 difference.

The ranges felt a bit on the short side but then we were using a 6x4 rather than 3x3 table.

Personally I really enjoyed it and was glad the table turned out as it did (I just grabbed a load of things to throw out)

Scenario was scavenging an abandoned military base

I was the State - suits and cops

Trade Guild - British military looking

Soviet task-force - ones with the red stars...

Eccentric Cultist gang

We scattered loot markers (proxies) and then at the end rolled a D10 for their value.

I won just but all the gangs scored close to each other.

Very few Out of action figures but plenty of knocked down.

Body armour seems expensive but I can see its usefulness

Definitely a rule set which will shine in a campaign rather than a one off skirmish, I could tell just by making the simple gangs up.

One big thing missing appears to be a QRS so I made my own slightly too detailed version but worked as only needed to refer to the rule book once in the game for an event cards effect.

I would recommend these rules to anyone looking for a fun simple skirmish game with a interesting campaign/development system.

Available here: Across the dead earth link

There were lots of other games on today but for once I failed to get around and snap some photos.

Been Awhile - today at Essex Warriors

Been awhile since I had something to post here, I have been very active on my facebook blog page but nothing there has really been big enough to replicate here and I haven't had the time to do another catch up duplication of what is posted there, so apologies for that.

Today was another Essex Warriors Club day in Writtle Essex.

I played a couple of games of Dreadball - loosing both by landslides!

First game was Veer-myn vs Orx, I lost in the final action of the 14th rush when they made a heroic 4 pointer to achieve a landslide (obviously this means I had already lost the game but good effort!)

I did have to consolation of killing two of his Strikers though :-)

The second game I was the Robots (Chargers) vs Corporation, and I lost by a landslide in the 7th or 8th rush. again he scored a 3 and 4 pointer. 

This was a much quicker game as we were both back up to speed with how to play, it had been a shamefully long time since we had both played and therefore the first game had us reminding ourselves how to play!

I did again kill one striker.

Despite the results it was a great couple of games.

We then played a quick round of Exploding Kitten, the Kickstarter card game that exploded into the most successful kickstarter ever.

It was good fun and I can see getting a fair bit of use from it, was it the best thing I have ever got from KS? not by a mile :-) however it is good and I am happy to have it.

In the afternoon I took part in a massive 8 player x-wing game.

It was fun but as with all skirmish games, once scaled up to lots of players and points it can get really really slow and bogged down, with people going out of turn, forgetting their go or actions etc.

However it was still a fun game even if I think we have to give victory to the Rebel scum.

Those giant ships are lethal!

Other games going on today:

Some DBM, a 40k game using bolt action activation but otherwise normal rules (This is an idea I like for lots of games to be honest), feedback seems to be it was much faster and caused some interesting differences when charging etc.

A Dark ages skirmish using the rules by Too Fat lardies.

And a run through of a Star Trek game which will be used as a show game later this year.

Also the new Halo space battle game was being played, looked good even unpainted.